Time - it's one of the most valuable currencies in the world and also the only one that cannot be saved or stored, only managed. Our ability to manage our time effectively determines our level of efficiency.
A few months ago, I took an inventory of how I used my time. During this inventory, I listed everything I did in a day and was astounded at the result. Most of my entire day's activities only used a few hours and there were large chunks of time in which I didn’t accomplish anything productive. It was eye-opening to see this misused time and to realize just how much might’ve been accomplished if I had only managed my time more effectively.
I began to invest more time into time management to improve my productivity.
The first thing I did was to set my alarm for the same time every day and to begin rising a little earlier than I had previously. I have a friend who began getting up two hours earlier every day after he did some math and found that by simply rising two hours earlier he was adding 30.42 days to his year!
The second thing I did was to organize my time into slots of 30 minutes. There are some activities that I give additional slots in order to fill an hour or sometimes two hours, but most things are only given thirty minutes at a time. This cut out a lot of time that had been wasted just ‘hanging out’ because I now had a schedule that demanded me to cut visitations shorter and to get to the point quicker.
The third thing I did was to organize my time based on the Stephen Covey Matrix that balances urgency and importance when scheduling events. Nearly all things can be found to fir somewhere within that matrix.
Quadrant 1: Urgent and Important
This is the easiest quadrant to organize since it deals with the things I have to do today. Most of recognize that things which are both urgent and important have to take priority in our schedule. A project that is essential to the company and that has a set deadline should always take precedence over riding a bike or jogging.
Quadrant 4: Not Urgent; Not Important
This quadrant is just as easy to group because it’s easy to recognize most things that are an obvious waste of time or are not in alignment with what we have to do. For instance, checking a personal facebook or twitter account during business hours would fall within this category.
Quadrants 2 and 3 are a little harder to define but are easily grouped with a little thought.
Quadrant 2: Urgent; Not Important
There are some things that are pressing matters, but are not important in comparison to other things. These items can be deceptive because the urgency of the item would make it seem important when it is really a waste of time. For example, when I receive an e-mail from a friend who is forwarding the latest joke to me, it comes in near the top of my inbox. This places it as being urgent, but it is far from important.
Quadrant 3: Important; Not Urgent
Items in this quadrant are things that must be done, but don’t necessarily need to be done today. If the deadline is tomorrow, it places it in Quadrant 1, but if the deadline is in July, it belongs in Quadrant 3.
For those who prefer an illustrative graphic of the four quadrants, here it is!
I’m still looking into additional resources and plans for maximizing my time, but I have been very pleased with how my productivity has increased in the last few months.
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